Saturday, May 31, 2014

I am in a Facebook art quilt group called Art Quilts Around the World and their blog is www.aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com. There are 22 members from around the world and we have a challenge every two months. The reveal day in today, May 31st, for the Bollywood Challenge.

I was intending to do a Bollywood quilt down the road and purchased the fabric on the left side of the quilt from www.equilter.com. Bollywood to me means lots of bling and flashy embellishments so I went crazy!! I hit my jewelry stash and selected the huge over heavy dangly earring for the forehead. I had some leftover gold trim from my 2013 Hoffman Challenge quilt and added two to the quilt plus some gold rick rack to add to the bling. I used several decorative threads with gold thread to create the image of a sari. I added plenty of gold beads and colored rhinestones to the head scarf. I took two old earrings and the chain from an old rabbits foot with some gold glitter nail polish to create the woman's earring/nose jewelry. I added a bit of glitter nail polish to the hair also.

Here is a detail photo of the face. I enjoyed the entire process of making this small (11.5" x 16.5") quilt.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

I discovered this awesome book on the internet because the quilt on the cover fed my obsession with color wheels! The book is a great resource for color schemes and exercises in how to use different color schemes and the color wheel for quilt blocks.

The pattern directions for this book cover quilt uses a 22.5 wedge ruler and the 12 basic colors on the color wheel. Within the 12 colors you select 8 values from very pastel to the darkest shade totaling 72 6 1/2" x 1/12" strips sewn together to make 12 strip sections.

I have photographed the book instructions to show how the wedges are cut. Add a piece of white to create a Dresden top to each wedge.

I though I followed the instructions and I ended up with only 3/4 of a circle. I started doing the math. A circle is 360 degrees divided by 12 wedges = 30 degrees not 22.5 as in the ruler width the book suggested. I reread the directions, got advice from my online quilting group and even emailed the book publisher who never got back to me. So I didn't want to scrap the idea so I make four more wedges to complete the circle and I was happy with the quilt and could finish it! My intentions for this quilt is to use it as a visual tool for my color and value classes.

When originally selecting the turquoises I was leaving out the teals, and when I was picking out red violets I was missing out on the warm pinks and when I was choosing the lime greens I was not getting any of the great chartreuses so this was an easy task. I then added the fourth wedge with golds.

I am happy with the quilt but will not do this again and art is more fun than busting my brain on this math and geometry stuff!!

Monday, May 12, 2014

I had the opportunity to do a lecture and my Intro to Portraits Quilts class based on my first quilt pattern last week at the Little Traverse Bay Quilt Guild in the Petoskey and Charlevoix MI area. I had several ladies in my class and got photos of most of the projects-one person had to leave early and another person had an arm injury and couldn't sew on her machine. The women were very fun, creative and well organized. These are the great examples of the class projects.

Great pink hair!

Redhead doing a redhead quilt!

Self portrait with a wild background!

This project may become a pillow!

Love the color combinations and the fuchsia hair!

Awesome warm colors and bold outer border fabric!!

Great use of primary colors and fun glasses!

And this last photo is an example of my quilt that I demoed on Quilting Arts TV Season 13 Episode 1303. If you go to www.quiltingdaily.com all of us artists have our work available for download. Laurel downloaded my pattern and brought it to class to show be-I'm impressed.

This awesome quilt guild treated me like a queen! I had a great experience and have lots of memories! I was able to visit the local quilt shop called Hearts to Holly in Charlevoix, I traveled to Lower Michigan for the first time and I crosses the Mackinac Bridge for the first time also! The bridge was a rush!!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

I have make 6 wall hangings in the last year which I call the "Bella" quilt series. Bella is good in Italian-rosa is pink, giada is purple and chroma is color. It uses 25-5" squares personally cut or from a charm pack and a raw edged fused applique technique over the pieced background. I have recently turned it into a pattern for sale on my website at www.laurieceesay.com. I am offering it as a class to teach as well. Below are three examples of the finished quilt which is 22" x 22."
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Bella Rosa

The first photo is the quilt I put on the cover of the pattern. It has a monochromatic color scheme and is a good example of how to work with value in selecting fabrics. I used dark brown for the applique and sewed beads on the front of the binding.
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Bella Giada
This second photo is the original quilt I made using a charm pack of batiks and a dark purple batik for the contrasting applique. The fabrics are more muted. I hand sewed flower shaped beads around the outside border

Bella Chroma

And last, I had mentioned I would not be doing a sixth quilt but couldn't resist and did a color wheel/color theory version with black as the contrasting applique color.

All of the six quilts are embellished with glitter/glue, nail polish, fabric paint, rhinestones, beads, sequins and some have flowers (silk/fabric) in the hair.

The patterns are available through my website and Paypal. Thanks for reading!! Laurie

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About Me

I am a contemporary quilter who specializes in portrait quilts. I am a hairdresser and am fascinated with hairstyles, make up, replicating the human form in fiber, retro fashion/prints, flowers and fairies. I usually work with bright colors, batiks and large scale prints. I love to embellish my quilts with rhinestones, beads, baubles, yarn, paint and crayons.